Chocolatier Gets Rich Chasing Best Beans for Monroe Lips, Frogs

By Marvin G. Perez -
Feb 14, 2012

Jacques Torres earned the nickname
“Mr. Chocolate” in the kitchens of Le Cirque, concocting sublime
desserts for the rich and famous. He left his stove to pursue
the world’s best cocoa beans -- and to become rich himself.

“From the beginning I always loved chocolate. Then it
became more of a passion, until the day it became almost an
obsession,” said Torres, a fishing aficionado who often spends
evenings on his boat docked near Jersey City.

“My goal is to sell to as many people as I can,” he said
with a thick French accent during an interview in his Hudson
Street shop in downtown Manhattan. “If you sell only to the
rich, you get rich. If you sell to everybody, you get richer.”

Raised in Bandol, France, a small town in Provence, Torres
took a job with Michelin two-star chef Jacques Maximin at the
Hotel Negresco in 1980, starting a relationship that took him
around the globe.

After a year-long stint in 1988 with the Ritz Carlton hotel
chain, Torres was poached by the keen-eyed Sirio Maccioni for Le
Cirque, one of New York’s premier eateries. For 11 years, he
served presidents, kings, oligarchs and, of course, the ladies
who lunch dramatic concoctions like a minuscule chocolate stove
with edible trays, pots and even a tiny cake.

He left in 2000 to open Jacques Torres Chocolate in the
Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn, and became one of the first
artisans to travel the globe in search of the perfect cocoa
bean.

Torres has already expanded to workshops and retail-only
boutiques in Chelsea Market, Rockefeller Center, and on the
Upper West Side all in Manhattan. Prices at his outlets range
from 50 cents for a piece of candy to a box of chocolates that
goes for $66, and even higher for specialty items.

Chocolate Valentine

As he prepares for the Valentine’s Day rush -- it’s the
fourth-biggest day for U.S. sales of chocolate -- Torres is
looking to expand his retail operation into other cities, such
as Philadelphia and Chicago.

“Chocolate sales are always better in places with colder
weather. I would love to grow in those cities,” says Torres,
who has written three books and makes frequent television
appearances, including two long-running series.

No competitor to behemoths like McLean, Virginia-based Mars
Inc. and Pennsylvania’s Hershey Co., Torres has steadily grown
his business to an 80-employee operation. Torres says he has
close to $10 million in annual sales, with an expected gain
between 10 and 15 percent in 2011.

That exceeds total U.S. retail chocolate sales growth of
6.6 percent in the 52 weeks through Jan. 22 to $8.07 billion,
according to data from Chicago-based market researcher
SymphonyIRI.

Swimming With Sharks

An adventurer by nature, the hyperactive 52-year-old swims
with sharks off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, a favorite
spot. He’s not afraid of competition nor of escalating raw
materials costs.

“Not only are the costs of maintaining farms rising,”
Torres said. “More and more countries like China are
discovering chocolate and that could be huge. India is also
growing very fast and people in these countries are getting
richer. I have no doubt that the price of cocoa will go up.”

From Bean to Box

This fall, Torres will start a partnership with Belgian
chocolate manufacturer Belcolade, based in Brussels. Torres will
control the raw materials needed to design giant chocolate-
coated frogs or lips as sensual as Marilyn Monroe’s.

He will also determine harvest time, ripeness, fermentation
and other attributes for the prime cocoa beans grown on a farm
in Mexico, where he’s reserved one section for himself.

To get the annual 100 tons he needs, Torres hedges his
cocoa needs with a broker, and he also hunts for rare beans
grown in far-flung places like Venezuela, Trinidad and
Madagascar.

“These countries produce very high quality cocoa beans but
the quantity is very small,” he said. “Everybody is fighting to
get their hands on them.”